Chris - I doubt that I would have made much of an impression at the show. I'm just another grey-haired guy of average height and build, wearing eyeglasses. Kind of sounds like a whole generation of us, I think. I purchased one of the replica DuoFold button-fillers you had in a rack on the table. Mine has a modern nib - a great broad (or BB?) stub/cursive italic nib that works really well in everyday use -- as long as I keep a bottle of ink nearby. We both (the pen and I) like the effect of lots of ink on the paper.

I'll be watching to see what your next projects may be. After the enjoyment the first has brought, I'd go for another in an instant. I'm glad to see you back here.

I very much doubt whether Parker used imperial threads in their pen production. It would have required a redesign of the pen and caused problems with parts interchangeability. Also, I believe the Newhaven tooling was imported from America.

With pens you are not talking about fitting generic parts, so it makes no sense to use different thread forms.

Similarly Ford cars manufactured here had American threads (while most of the UK owned manufacturers switched during 1950's), rather than use imperial threads

I know one of the former parker executives before parker was bought out and fired everyone. When we talked he was telling me that with the Duofolds the workers where not paid for the number of product that they produced ,but paid based on how many where perfect. So I think that there may have been some differences just based on that and the different production plants.

I am a member, and am very pleased with them. I'm taking the classes needed to run a number of the interesting CNC machines. There isn't one close to you yet, but they are growing. They only add a couple of shops a year, though.

In another life, when I worked around a Semiconductor Wafer Fabrication unit, about 95% of the workers than worked "hands on" with the semiconductor wafers were women. They have distinct advantages in eye hand coordination and manual dexterity.